Four Harmonies and Good Fortune

Chapter 48 Heartless
He Tan spoke from the side, but Wang Hechun seemed not to hear him and continued to process the documents. However, when he started writing with a reverse stroke, he turned too heavily and left a bad stroke.

Wang Hechun's gaze darkened slightly, but he was too lazy to rewrite it, so he closed the book and tossed it aside.

"Why don't we send someone to look for it?" He Tan asked Wang Hechun. "After all, they're not familiar with Daming Prefecture. They might have gone too far and never come back."

He Tan knew that Wang Hechun had put a lot of effort into that cat, especially after they returned from the forest. The cat refused to eat or drink, and Wang Hechun had to coax it and feed it goat milk. For this, he was often scolded by his father, who was afraid that he would become like those other children and lose his ambition by indulging in playthings.

It's fair to say that without Wang Hechun, the raccoon dog wouldn't have survived at all. After that, Wang Hechun would take it with him wherever he went. But this raccoon dog was impossible to keep and would always run away. At first, everyone was afraid that it would get lost, but this raccoon dog had some skills. No matter where it was, it would always find its way back to Wang Hechun.

He Tan still remembers clearly the way Wang Hechun sat in the courtyard waiting for the cat when he was a child.

But as time went on, Wang Hechun became more and more composed, and naturally he could no longer wait for his fox.

Wang Hechun folded the document neatly, clearly not intending to rewrite it: "Ignore it, it's just something I was playing around with."

He Tan thought for a moment, and before the words could finish, he said, "Was it really that cat that led you to see the immortal back then?"

A figure flashed through Wang Hechun's mind, but he quickly suppressed it deep in his memory: "Can you really believe what someone says when they're drunk?"

“What others say may not be true, but what you, Wang Hechun, said when you were drunk is probably the truth.” He Tan can still recall Wang Hechun’s earnest expression.

If he hadn't stopped him back then, Wang Hechun, under the influence of alcohol, would have taken the cat back to that forest to ask the immortal why he had deceived him.
Knowing he wouldn't get the truth out of her, He Tan could only wave her hand and say, "If you won't even tell me, then you can keep it a secret for the rest of your life!"

More than a decade has passed since that incident, and Wang Hechun has deliberately avoided talking about it. Now, fewer and fewer people know the inside story, and amidst the unfounded speculations of those people, Wang Hechun's experience has become increasingly bizarre. Wang Hechun does not defend himself, and now he simply uses it to avoid marriage.

Wang Hechun asked, "Is the notice ready?"

"We'll post the notice first thing tomorrow morning," He Tan said. "After the ward gates open in ten days, they won't be closed anymore, and the two collapsed sections of the ward walls in the eastern part of Daming Prefecture will be demolished. I see that the merchants who got the news have already bought up the street-facing shops in the wards. I wonder which shop will be the most bustling then?"

Merchants, eager to expand their shops, inevitably devise various methods to attract customers, which can quickly make the market prosperous.

Taking a sip of tea, He Tan slowly said, "It won't be easy for Miss Xie to gain a foothold in this world."

Wang Hechun remained silent, and He Tan brought the conversation back to the topic: "Why don't you send someone to the Yang family to ask if your little fox is with Madam Xie?"

Although the cat ran out of the government office after Xie Yuyan left, He Tan's statement that the cat ran away with Lady Xie was just a joke, and he didn't take it to heart. He was now teasing Wang Hechun.

After all, Wang Hechun, the raccoon dog, had been raised for ten years. It was impossible for him to abandon his master for a young woman he had just met. Besides, his Hechun was good in every way; he wouldn't be so disdainful of even a raccoon dog.

"Brother, don't you need to preside over the case?" Wang Hechun finally raised his head. "Have you figured out what happened with the Yang family? Have you found out the identity of the soldier who committed suicide on the estate? The Xie family is also going to be exonerated. What are you thinking, brother? Are you just going to wait for a young lady to deliver the evidence to the yamen?"

These questions made He Tan completely lose his relaxed expression. He wanted to say something more, but knowing that he couldn't win against Wang Hechun's sharp tongue, he had no choice but to give up.

"I'm going to the jail." He Tan stood up and walked out. Anyway, it wasn't his cat, so why was he in such a hurry? It was fine if the cat came back, but if it disappeared for several days, let's see if Wang Hechun could sit still.

After He Tan left, the room became quiet.

Wang Hechun continued reading another official document. After some time, the servant Sang Dian came in, rubbing his reddened earlobes, and brought a bowl of soup to Wang Hechun.

“My lord,” Sang Dian said in a low voice, “I’ve searched all over, but I haven’t found any of the places that Tanuki usually likes to go.”

Wang Hechun responded, seemingly unconcerned.

Sang Dian, fearing that her husband would be heartbroken, held back for a long time before saying, "If he doesn't come back, my lord, don't be sad. It's clear that the cat is heartless."

"Who treats their cat like you, sir?"

“Otherwise, my lord, just consider that cat gone. Ten years have passed in the blink of an eye, and some cats can only live that long. I will find you another one another day.”

"But this time, my lord, please don't keep a cat like before. Give it a name and call it from time to time so that it knows that there is a master like you."

“You treat it well, but it’s like a gourd with its mouth sawed off, refusing to say anything. How could it know your feelings? It thinks you’re annoyed with it, so naturally it wants to run away.” Sang Dian said in a serious tone, but his words of persuasion were like knives, stabbing straight into his husband’s chest.

If Sangzhi were here, he would definitely cover his mouth and drag him away.

Wang Hechun turned to look at Sang Dian, who then stopped talking. What he said was true; his husband clearly cared about that cat, but he never said it.

“That cat wasn’t raised by an immortal,” Sang Dian said at the last minute, risking his life. “If it was… then it was just like that immortal… heartless.”

Sang Dian escaped from the second hall, but his husband's gaze was like a knife, and he simply couldn't bear it.

Wang Hechun finally finished revising the documents in his hand, and then he went to look at the small bowl.

That immortal...

She's not heartless, she's just a liar.

……

Mother Yu rushed back from Sanhe Village outside the city. Before she could even have a sip of water, she went to report to Xie Yuyan.

"There is a lot of coal there, more than several hundred pounds just from the surface, but the quality is not good. The people in that village help the merchants mine coal. When the coal is gone, the merchants leave, leaving behind those coal fragments as payment for their labor."

"After winter set in, the villagers had no choice but to use coal dust for heating. But somehow, one family died from poisoning, while another family was saved thanks to timely rescue."

When Mother Yu took the money to buy coal, the villagers' eyes lit up, and they answered all her questions.

When the villagers mentioned that coal was poisonous, their expressions changed again, fearing that Mother Yu might change her mind and refuse to buy coal anymore.

Madam Yu paused as she spoke, "Those coal scraps are worthless to them. If Second Madam gives them twenty strings of cash, they can scrape the entire village clean and give all the coal scraps they get to First Madam."

This was not something that Yu's mother guessed.

Yang Qin had bought some coal scraps before, and the people of Sanhe Village had been hoping for their return ever since. Now that she was visiting, the villagers were afraid of missing out on the deal, so they started talking to her all at once, offering prices that were getting lower and lower.

The task went smoothly, and Yu's mother was very happy, but she also had some concerns.

Mother Yu said, "Coal chips aren't expensive now, but I'm worried that if they sell well in the future, the price will rise, and what if someone else gets involved..."

As she spoke, Madam Yu glanced outside. When she came over, there weren't many people from the third branch of the family, which meant that not many people were going to do business with Madam Xie.

"We don't have enough money and manpower. If we are targeted, I'm afraid we won't be able to fight back."

Xie Yuyan said, "It's impossible for me to do this alone."

Following up on what Madam Xie said, Madam Yu pondered, "Could it be that Inspector He is willing to...?"

“How can we, who are doing business, get involved with the government?” Xie Yuyan said. “We don’t have enough manpower, and we also need the entire Sanhe Village.”

Yu's mother looked surprised: "Those people from Sanhe Village, they're willing to help?"

She also worried that if the method of making lotus root charcoal were leaked, Sanhe Village would start making lotus root charcoal themselves to sell, which would be more profitable than selling coal scraps.

Xie Yuyan said calmly, "They have to do this, otherwise... they'll be doomed."

The people of Sanhe Village were not helping her, but rather themselves.

(End of this chapter)